


A Small Scare

by OrangeOctopi7



Series: Forduary 2020 [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Feral!Ford, Gen, Just some shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22776904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeOctopi7/pseuds/OrangeOctopi7
Summary: Ford tries to prove a point and doesn't quite succeed.
Series: Forduary 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624426
Comments: 10
Kudos: 77





	A Small Scare

“Grunkle Stan, you promised you’d take us to the grocery store!” Mabel complained.

“Yeah, well that was  _ before  _ I broke my toe tripping over your hot glue gun.”

Stan was sitting in his recliner, both feet up, while Ford applied some sort of special cream to the swollen, blackened toe in question. The kids stood between him and the TV, determined not to let their Grunkle just relax and watch TV until they got what they wanted.

“But I still have another dozen cookies to make for tonight’s human-gnome relations seminar, and we’re all out of eggs and milk!

“And I’m out of ball-point pens!” Dipper added.

“Look, kids, Ford says I gotta stay off my foot for the next 24 hours if his incredible cure-all is gonna work. Otherwise I’m gonna be in a boot for the rest of the month, and nobody wants that. Why can’t you just ask Soos to take you once tours are done for the day?”

“Because he doesn’t finish until six, and the seminar starts at 6:30!”

“You know, Stan _ , I  _ could take them.” Ford offered.

Stan gave his brother a skeptical glance. “You sure about that, Poindexter? Remember what happened _ last time _ ?”

Ford rolled his eyes. “That was last fall! I’ve made a lot of progress keeping my cool in social situations.”

“Yeah, in open-air markets, not a cramped little grocery store.”

“You know what? I’m going to take them, just to prove to you that I can!” Ford huffed.

“Alright, fine. ‘Snot like I can stop you. But take Soos’s truck. There’s no way I’m lettin’ you drive my car.”

“Fine.”

“Yay!” The kids cheered, following Ford into the hall.

Stan caught hold of Dipper’s vest as the boy passed. 

“Hey, kid, do me a favor? Just stick close to Ford while you’re at the store, alright?”

Dipper nodded. “Sure thing, Grunkle Stan.”

* * *

“I don’t see  _ why  _ Stanley is so insistent that I can’t drive his car.” Ford complained as he pulled into the parking lot. “I got us here without incident.”

“Well, you  _ did  _ end up on the curb a handful of times.” Mabel pointed out.

“ _ And _ narrowly avoided a collision with a car parked on the side of the road.”

“ _ Avoided _ being the operative word.” Ford insisted. “And don’t try and tell me Stan’s any better.”

“True.” the kids agreed.

The grocery store wasn’t terribly busy, but Gravity Falls wasn’t a big town, so that was to be expected. As soon as they entered, Mabel led them into the dairy section to get her eggs and milk. They were both located in the back corner of the store. Stanford found himself tensing as he walked down a cold aisle filled with different kinds of cheese, butter, cream, milk, and eggs. He couldn’t see the other people in there with them, couldn’t see what they were  _ doing _ , couldn’t see the  _ exit-- _

_ It’s fine. _ He told himself.  _ It’s just a grocery store. People are just here to get food. _

“Welp, I gotta go get some girl stuff.” Mabel declared once she’d loaded her carton of eggs into the grocery cart. “See you guys at the checkout!” She sauntered off to the other end of the store, quickly lost from Ford’s sight among all the displays of soda cans and snack cakes.

“She’ll be ok.” Dipper assured his uncle, slipping his tiny hand into the scientist’s larger one. Ford immediately blushed. Was his discomfort that obvious?

Dipper led Ford to the office supplies, where they grabbed a packet of nice blue ink pens. It really wasn’t that bad, he kept telling himself. Sure, he was tense, he was on high-alert, even higher because Mabel had wandered off on her own, but he could handle it. It would be  _ fine. _

It  _ would have _ been fine, if not for the spill.

They were passing through the frozen aisle when someone behind them pulled out a big bag of frozen peas. Unfortunately, the bag had frozen together with its neighbor, and when one was pulled out, it tried to take the second bag with it, leading to a rip. Two bags full of frozen peas spilled onto the floor, making a cacophony of pinging, tinkling sounds. Tiny ice crystals flew up in the air as the peas shattered. Ford’s hairs stood on end as the cold flecks showered them. As the rapid-fire shattering assaulted his ears. 

Suddenly, Ford wasn’t in the grocery store. He was in the ice fields of Raretania 2, with a pack of cryokinetic creatures on his tail. Icicles grew on them like spines, and when they wanted to take down a meal, they could shoot the ice shards like a porcupine on steroids.

The old researcher scooped up his nephew and began frantically searching for a place to hide. Outrunning these things wasn't an option, when they could shoot their icicles with such speed and accuracy. These aisles were barren of any real cover. All they did was hide whatever was on the other side. However, Ford did notice a few feet of space between the top of the freezers and the ceiling. That could work. 

He more-or-less threw Dipper up onto the freezers before scaling them himself. A quick survey of the area showed they had lost their pursuers for now. But someone was still in immediate danger.

"Where's your sister!?" Ford hissed quietly to Dipper, who was still sputtering after being thrown up here like a pile of dirty laundry.

"Wh-- probably the cosmetics aisle, I dunno! What's--"

"We need to get to her before they do."

"They  _ who _ ?"

"I don't know if they have an actual name on the planet they're from. I always just called them  _ Iciquills _ . Suffice to say, they're  _ extremely  _ dangerous, so we need to  _ find  _ Mabel and  _ warn  _ her. Now come on, we can probably jump to the next shelf from here."

Rather than be concerned, Dipper just latched onto his uncle's leg, stopping him from leaping. "Great Uncle Ford,  _ no _ ! You'll just hurt yourself! Or at the very least make a huge mess!"

"That hardly matters in this situation! We need to find Mabel without drawing their attention."

"Mabel's not in danger!  _ We're  _ not in danger! Stop and think! Why would Iciquills be here, at the grocery store?  _ How  _ would Iciquills be at the grocery store?"

Every cell in Ford's body was screaming at him to act before it was too late. But he knew if there was any real danger, Dipper wouldn't just brush it off like this. And when he stopped to think about it,  _ no _ , it didn't make any logical sense.

"But… but I  _ heard  _ it! The sound of their quills just missing a target! I  _ felt  _ the breaking ice on the backs of my legs!" 

"Oh. I guess that  _ was  _ pretty scary, when you put it like that." Dipper grimaced. "But I promise, it was just an accident! Someone dropped their peas. Look!" The boy pointed to the back of his uncle's pant legs. Tiny flecks of thawing peas stuck there.

Ford's heart sank, and his face burned red with embarrassment. He'd come here to prove Stanley wrong, and instead did just the opposite. Now he wanted to hide up here for completely different reasons.

"The longer we stay up here, the more embarrassing it's gonna get." Dipper suggested.

Ford nodded mutely, and swung his legs over the top of the freezer, dropping the last few feet with a light "oof" before helping Dipper down. Luckily, the only person who'd seen the whole debacle was the guy who'd dropped the peas in the first place: Wendy's tall friend, Lee. He seemed to know better than to make a scene, and just waved meekly.

"Dude, I'm so sorry."

"No, no,  _ I'm  _ sorry." Ford reflected.

"Come on, let's see if Mabel's done." Dipper suggested.

They found her in the cosmetics aisle, like Dipper had expected, comparing two brands of lip-balm. She noticed their soured moods almost immediately. 

"Is something wrong? What happened?"

"I'll tell you in the car." Dipper assured her. "Let's just buy our stuff and go."

After rushing through the checkout line, they piled back into Soos's truck and headed home. Dipper filled Mabel in on Ford's scare. To the old man's credit, he did his best to laugh it off now that it had passed.

"I'd appreciate it if you two didn't mention that to Stan."

Mabel and Dipper shared a wicked glance. "Well, it's gonna take a lot of chocolate to make us forget that." The colorful girl said.


End file.
